This invention relates generally to flight control systems, and more specifically, to methods and systems for providing dynamic disturbance compensation for a flight platform, for example, shock compensation during a flight utilizing adaptive control techniques.
An inertial sensor assembly (ISA), typically includes an inertial measurement unit (IU) that detects acceleration and rotation in three planes. A typical IMU includes three accelerometers and three rotational rate sensors arranged with their input axes in a perpendicular relationship. The accelerometers and sensors are generally rigidly and precisely mounted within a housing along with other related electronics and hardware. Commonly, the housing is mounted to a support or chassis through suspension mounts or vibration isolators. The chassis is rigidly and precisely mounted to a frame of a vehicle, such as an aircraft or missile. An ISA typically forms a portion of a flight control system.
Certain components of flight control systems, for example, the above described inertial measurement units (IMUs), are likely to experience performance degradation when exposed to motion as a result of body bending and induced vibration. Such motions are typically high shock transients at low frequencies.
Example applications where such shock transient conditions are encountered include missile and other interceptor applications. In missile and interceptor flight control systems, the IMU is likely to sustain shock wave transients at accelerations up to multiple G levels over a period of time. These shock wave transients, when above predefined and specified thresholds, may be destructive to the IMU. However, the IMU is required to provide accurate and reliable navigation in order to achieve mission success. Consequently, an IMU is called upon to operate reliably in a highly vibratory environment accommodating low frequency/high amplitudes and high frequency/low amplitudes conditions. Therefore, accelerations sensed by the IMU due to missile vibration are to be resolved into the IMU chosen navigation reference frame.